U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/631,816 (here in after Application) filed Dec. 20, 1990 and assigned to the same assignee as this application discloses a fault isolation and bypass reconfiguration unit and is incorporated herein by reference. While the fault isolation and bypass techniques disclosed therein are suitable for general use and provide reliable operation, applicants have discovered an improved technique which reduces substantially the time required to isolate and bypass one or more faulty components within an isolated ring. This time reduction provides a significant operational advantage since it substantially reduces additional recovery attempts at higher layers of the communication protocol.